Brian Hirthler Outruns the Raindrops and the Field on way to Second Win of the Season at Grandview & Pit Notes

Brian Hirthler outran the rain and the sportsman field on his way to his second win in his 3^rd start in the 2021 points championship chase.

In the sportsman 25 lap feature it was Jesse Landis holding the early lead through five cautions only to see Brian Hirthler move to the high side and motor from 5^th into the lead on lap 12 and then to checkout right into victory lane with a 2 second margin of victory for his second Sportsman win of the season.

In victory lane Brian noted “Car was good on top again while the bottom got real slick and equaled itself out.  I got some breaks with the cautions coming in the right spot for me.  You can’t win if you don’t finish and last week we got caught up in an early one (wreck) and didn’t want that to happen again this week.  I felt the top was safer as guys were spinning out on the bottom.  I got 3 wide on the back stretch but I lifted to save the car since I was in the middle and could have gotten bent up from two different  directions………gave up two spots but got them back on the next restart.  It was all about give and take tonight and I just took what was given to me and didn’t try to take anything extra………..that can get you in trouble.  When I passed Jesse for the lead I was over the cushion and got both tires in some wet stuff which had a lot of grip but it was risky.”

The Sportsman top ten was rounded out by Kyle Smith in second followed by Jesse Landis, Kyle Lillick, Lex Shive, Ryan Beltz, Kenny Gilmore, Jimmy Leiby, Brandon Edgar and Tyler James in 10^th.

The sportsman heat winners were Colton Perry, Joey Vaccaro and Jesse Landis.  Last chance consolation winners were Brandon Edgar and Cody Manmiller.

Sportsman 25 lap Feature – 4/24/21 – Grandview:

 1. Brian Hirthler, 2. Kyle Smith, 3. Jesse Landis, 4. Kyle Lilick, 5. Lex Shive, 6. Ryan Beltz, 7. Kenny Gilmore, 8. Jimmy Leiby, 9. Brandon Edgar, 10. Tyler James, 11. Cody Manmiller, 12. Ray Swinehart, 13. Parker Guldin, 14. Kenny Bock, 15. Ebby Ridge, 16. Nathan Mohr, 17. Steve Young, 18. Joey Vaccaro, 19. Bryan Rhoads, 20. Colton Perry, 21. Mike Schneck, 22. Doug Snyder, 23. Cody Schantz, 24. Dakota Kohler, 25. Mark Kemmerer, 26. Chris Esposito.

DNS – Dylan Hoch

DNQ – Decker Swinehart, Adriana Dellaponte, Nick Faust, BJ Joly, Ryan Conrad, Mark Gaugler, Chuck Eckert, Dominick Devlin

Sportsman Pit Notes

Brian Hirthler made it two out of three wins this year and the 2020 sportsman is still only sitting 4^th in the early season points.  Less than 40 points separate the top 4 already and consistency and staying out of trouble week to week is what it’s going to take to stay in the hunt for and ultimately win the 2021 championship.  Hirthler won by 5 points last year so let the point counting begin and no one wants to leave any points on the table.

Kyle Smith finished a season best 2^nd place from a 13^th starting place to add his first top 5 to his two previous top 10 finishes putting him second in the early season points behind his uncle Kenny Gilmore.   Kyle is right where he wants to be in the thick of a points chase for the 2021 championship.

Jesse Landis led the first 12 laps of the feature; but 5 cautions kept bringing him back to the field as Brian Hirthler moved up through the field.  Jesse finished 3^rd for his best finish of the season.  Back at the trailer Jesse reflected “The 5 cautions in the first 5 laps just completely changed the race.  I had second but went for the win trying the bottom but couldn’t make it stick.  This is the second race in a row we should have won if the racing circumstances played out a little differently.  Last week was our race to win and we broke a right front shock early.  I have been 2^nd and 3^rd but never won one of these and this year my goal is to get a win.”

Lex Shive finished 5^th which was his best outing of the season so far.  Lex was running a strong 4^th when the transmission broke last week so looking like the 5K is on the brink of some weekly consistent top 10 or top 5 finishes.  Postrace Lex reflected “We missed the setup in the heat race and will be better prepared next week in the heat.  In the feature we had 4^th in the bag and Kyle passed me on the last corner.  You can’t argue with Kyle’s experience up there in the last corner.”

Kenny Gilmore had his worst finish of the season and that was still a 7^th and in the top 10.  Kenny is experiencing a racing resurgence with a return to full time sportsman racing while his son moves to their modified full time this year.  Last year the father and son team alternated between the modified and sportsman from one week to the next.  Kenny is already on top of the sportsman points standing and is on fire this season with a 2^nd, two 3^rd s and a 7^th from 18^th starting position this week.

Jimmy Leiby was able to find his way carefully through 5 early cautions and managed to turn in an 8^th place finish from a 22^nd starting position and earn the highest finishing crate bonus for the night.  Last week Leiby finished 4^th in his 9L and moved over to his brother’s car for the crate race and finished 10^th from an 18^th starting position.  Jimmy reflected “Last week was great having Glenn Strunk in my 9L car and being able to get his opinion and advice on the car.  We hope to make a run for this year’s sportsman championship and I certainly think Glenn can help me an awful lot with all his Grandview experience.” Jimmy would like to improve on his 11^th place points finish in 2020 and has already set sail to do that with a 10^th, 4^th and 8^th this season that has him sitting 5^th in the current point standings.

In his 5^th outing of the season Tyler James got a season best finish of 10^th and despite spinning the car out on lap 22.  Postrace Tyler commented “I got in the sandy stuff and just made a mistake and looped the car.  We are really pleased with our progress in just 5 outings this season.  The part I like best about driving is the car and mouse games involved with racing here at Grandview.  I owe a big thank you to John Willman and my dad.  I’m really looking forward to this season and John has been teaching me stuff every week.”

Colton Perry broke a motor last week and thanks to a mid-week thrash by his crew and a back-up motor from his cousin Mike Stofflet he was able to get back on track this week.  Colton is another member of a rather large 2021 sportsman rookie class and won his first heat race with a back-up motor.  Colton started on the pole position by default when Nick Faust could not make the call and led from green to checkered while holding off the likes of Brian Hirthler who was only .3 of a second behind at the checkered.  That earned Colton his first feature pole position which provided a few memorable 3 wide laps and a contact wheel stand incident on the back stretch ending his night with front end damage.

 Dylan Koch won last week and has found out how quickly things can change from week to week at Grandview.   Last’s week’s winner ended up two places out of a transfer spot in his heat race.  The 35 entry had a solid run in the last chance consolation and qualified for the feature.   Changes were required between the consolation and the feature but Hoch couldn’t make the call for the feature and one week later after winning his first Grandview feature was a DNQ a week later. Dylan reflected “We ran into problems making a change before the feature.  It took us entirely too long and we couldn’t make the call even though we qualified for the feature.  It was very frustrating and disappointing but we will learn from this tonight and be prepared next time so this doesn’t happen again.”  

The 77T of Tommy Miller has turned into the mystery driver of the week in the past couple of weeks.  Last week Ryan Lillick came out for the feature in the 77T and finished 6^th.  This week the celebrity driver of the week was Ray Swinehart who wheeled the 77T to a consolation transfer spot from last place and then guided the 77T to 12^th place in the feature from a 26^th starting position.  Who will be in the 77T next week?

A couple of new sportsman drivers have also appeared in the pits after opening day at the Money Maker.  Dominick Devlin is a new sportsman driver working out of the Mark Levy garage and has been present for the past three weeks.  Dominick has been chasing motor gremlins but is in hopes of stepping up his performance in the near future.

This one is for the old-timer’s out there and yes that is Uncle Tony (22D) Delliponti’s niece Adriana that was shaking down the Kevin Hirthler 117 crate sportsman this week.   The racing history of the Hirthler and Delliponti families goes back to their grandfathers and has been continued to this day by Kevin mentoring Adriana in his 117 crate sportsman.  A 10 race schedule is planned throughout the season at Grandview.  Adriana commented “We were shaking the car down today for the second time and this time with other cars on track.  We were loose in the consolation but just real excited about the opportunity to be in a crate with all of Mr. Hirthler’s experience and support.  I can’t thank Kevin and the Hirthler family enough for this opportunity.” 

Grandview’s next event is on Saturday May 1^st with the modified and sportsman in a two division show and racing starting at 7:30 PM.